A Graduation Gift

Jill, with her towering fury, stood up angrily and pushed the dining chair back. She went on with the heated argument with Rufus. She was shouting mean words towards him like a shrew.

"That's enough!"

Horace slammed his heavy hands down the table. His roar-like voice made Cassandra jerk.

"Jill! I'm warning you. Rufus is my son and a member of the Tang family. If you continue on humiliating him, I will definitely drive you out of this house! Then we'll see who will be no longer part of this family!"

Jill's pale face quivered with embarrassment. She knew for sure that he meant what he had just said. It was for real and not a threat as Horace bristled with anger. She deemed it wise to just stop and take her seat, or else she would be an outcast in no time.

Her retreat, however, didn't mean that she had admitted defeat. She glared at Rufus silently and sat back in her seat with a sinister plan of revenge running on the back of her mind.

A servant hurried towards Rufus and cleansed his wounds with some disinfectant and wrapped it neatly with white gauze. After that, he turned towards Horace and bent over to whisper something in his ear, "Mr. Tong called and said he would come over because he had something urgent to discuss with you. He also added that he would come personally to check on Mr. Luo's injuries."

Upon hearing the news that Jenks was coming, he turned to the servant and ordered, "Tell the chef that Jenks is coming. I have oriented him about his favorite dishes last time. Make sure he cooks something he likes."

The servant nodded. Cold sweats were popping out of his forehead.

Horace was naturally strict at ordinary days, but it was very rare to see him so upset. He was so infuriated that the heavy and raspy yell he had made earlier veiled a mask of fear to everyone at the house.

Everyone knew well that the reasons for it all were Jill and Rufus, but no one dared to point it out. The fear of Horace weakened the strength out of them.

Jill had been difficult to get along with. Over the years, she had been peevish and grew fond of criticizing and finding faults with the servants' work for no reason whatsoever. Every servant was afraid of her, but they were like a dumb man eating the bitter herb - suffering in silence.

However, Jill was a great pretender. She always wore a smile in front of guests as if everything was fine with her. Especially when Horace was around, she would transform into an elegant, sophisticated, well-mannered woman and act like everything was perfect and orderly fine.

Nonetheless, misunderstandings had habituated the household recently. It started the moment Rufus moved in together with the Tang family.

Ever since Horace learned about Rufus's existence, he had done everything possible for Rufus to be accepted to the family.

Rufus was his biological son, and he owed Rufus's mother a lot. His conscience smote him for not providing and taking care of them in the past.

When all his plans for Rufus were set, he pulled all the courage he had to tell Jill about his son from another woman. Jill was so mad, but Horace was confused if her madness was genuine or not.

efforts were in vain. Horace had made up his mind and it remained unchanged. He brought Rufus to live with them and appointed him to take charge

help but remember the delicate woman, Hellen Luo. He had sworn to marry her despite

a blessing. She gave birth to Rufus,

to his father's expectations. The Tang Group was prospering with each passing

had shed were of no use. Worst of all, the once-famous Xie family she originally belonged to had gone to pot for years. She had

as steady

for her bad taste in choosing cheap wine glasses. He emphasized that the wine glasses

considering that she was way older than he was. He should show her some respect and call her 'mother'. As the argument heightened, Horace yelled at her in front of the family. She was

of anger and wouldn't listen to anyone. Rufus's injury made Horace's heart ache. Lionel swallowed back the

that Lionel turned a

fight of the Tang family. She was only worried about Rufus's wound. She grabbed hold of his hand dressed with gauze while tears were falling on her face. The sight of the

child, I fell down and scraped my hand, my mother blew on my wound, then it wouldn't

stared at her features

only it was Cassandra who was holding his hand and comforting him now, the pain wouldn't trouble him for sure.

hand with Lionel. They had to pretend to

hand, calmed down and responded gently to Cloris, "I'm fine. Don't worry. Let's

pressure because of the incident. Horace seated himself on the far end of the table with a calmer expression on his face. Jill sat on the other end, while

watched Cloris carefully holding Rufus's hand. Her heart sulked at

mind them, but her ears were attentive that she could still hear what Cloris was saying to Rufus.

obvious, and Rufus didn't refuse her show of

said that her mother would gently blow on her wound when she got hurt, Cassandra's nose twitched.

brought her memory of the small town back to

nurse was a kind, old lady. She granted Cassandra whatever she asked for and spoiled her with everything she wanted. Despite all these, Cassandra still longed for her

spend her childhood with them. She wasn't able

the many rules of the Qin family when she went back from the town. She

father was busy with his career, and it was her mother who gradually helped her

treated her and Cloris differently. She dared not ask because she was afraid that she couldn't bear the answer she

her parents loved Cloris more, how should she face them? The thought complicated her

and her parents focused on Cloris because she was

to Cloris